5 Young African Billionaires You Should Know About

Attaining the billionaire pinnacle is one of the success milestones of every entrepreneur. Despite the rigorous path to achieving it, some young African entrepreneurs, through their grit and business acumen, have made their marks and become billionaires.

With a keen eye on their environment, they have built empires in different sectors such as oil and gas, financial technology (fintech) and real estate on the continent. This is further made possible by increased technological exposure on the continent. By leveraging, they have contributed to developing their countries, Africa and the world. Some of the young African billionaires pioneering this space are 

Sijibomi Ogundele

Sijibomi Ogundele is one of the youngest billionaires, born and raised in Agege, Lagos, Nigeria. With an entrepreneurial tenacity, he fought through the slum in Agege and built one of Lagos’s most successful real estate businesses worth millions of dollars. This was built with skills and business experiences from the street of Agege to the famous Oke-Arin market.

Today, the certified lawyer is the founder and chief executive officer of Sujimoto Construction Company Ltd, a construction company with assets in cities like Accra, Dubai, Lagos, Riyadh, Paris and Madrid. Some of his notable works include Banana Island’s tallest residential building, the Lucrezia De Medici.

Kennedy Okonkwo

Kennedy Okonkwo is a real estate mogul that built his way from the rung of the ladder to be one of the best in his niche. Instead of giving an excuse for his situation when he lost his father at 16, he fought all odds, such as sleeping under the Ikeja bridge in Lagos. Though not easy, with hard work and persistence, he rewrote his story from nothing to become one of the billionaires in Nigeria.

He said, “I believed I was going to be a great man because the obstacles I faced made me better. As they say, the heaviest of the fire made the finest of steel.” Today, he is the founder and chief executive officer of Nedcomoaks Limited.

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Vusi Thembekwayo

Vusi Thembekwayo is considered one of the wealthiest young people in South Africa. He is a serial entrepreneur with a diversified portfolio. Thembekwayo is the founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of MyGrowthFund Venture Partners, a venture capitalist firm and IC Knowledge Bureau.

He is the co-founder of VUKA Capital and the chairman of the infrastructure investment platform at Africa Growth Partners. Apart from those mentioned above, he also serves as an investor and shareholder on different organisational boards.

Thembekwayo is also a renowned elite coach, mentor, keynote speaker, and best-selling author of internationally acclaimed books such as The Magna Carta of Exponentiality. These skills are natural to him, as, at the age of 17, he was ranked as the best motivational speaker in Africa. At 25, he became the youngest director of a multinational company with annual revenue of R17billion.

He made himself a catalyst of change in the business space in Africa and the world at large. He successfully built and transformed businesses in South Africa and abroad.

Abdullahi Bashir Haske

Abdullahi Bashir Haske is a Nigerian billionaire that built his wealth from different industries in Nigeria. He is the founder and group MD of AA&R Investments, a long chain of oil-based companies that continue to stretch to new frontiers.

With his brilliant business strategy, he started his career as a contractor to build his business in the oil and gas sector and expand it to other industries such as marine services, aviation, agriculture, information technology and logistics services.

Kevin Okyere

Kevin Okyere is the founder of Springfield Group, an oil and gas exploration and production company also involved in the trading and transporting hydrocarbons and terminalling and storage. Under his leadership, the company generates about $1 billion yearly. His company owns 82% of West Cape Three Points Block 2 offshore Ghana (WCTP2).

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